


Her Nightmare

by balfrey



Series: revery [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 10:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20813495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/balfrey/pseuds/balfrey
Summary: Isla is troubled. Solas wonders why. He watches her dream and understands.





	Her Nightmare

They found the child on the road to Redcliffe.

Dispatching of the bandits had already worn them out. The group they had just dealt with was notably better supplied than the others they had come across in the Hinterlands. Isla was wiping the blood off of her daggers when she turned, her face suddenly focused, listening.

She found him in the trees just off the road.

“He tol’ me to hide,” he said, small voice quaking slightly.

“Who?”

He didn’t reply.

“What’s your name?”

“Sam.”

“Sam, where is your home?”

“We was headin’ to Redcliffe, to see my aunty.”

“My name is Isla,” she said, smiling softly as she crouched next to him.

She smoothed his hair, and they set off down the road.

\--

It wasn’t difficult to find the child’s aunt in the small town. The woman cried when she saw him. She bid him inside, yelling to her husband that Sam had arrived, then closed the door.

“Thank you so much for bringing him here. When we heard about his da’… my brother…” 

Isla hugged her before they left, accepting the loaf of bread handed to her with a sincere smile.

\--

Solas watched her as they made the hike back to camp. She hardly spoke. The trek to the Farms camp was long, and her green eyes reflected the darkening trees around them.

They arrived in camp just after nightfall, relief at finding the cradle of a smoothly sloping valley. The expanse of the sky held a half moon and the stars that met it. Isla stared upwards, somewhat apart. 

Watching her from the pile of supplies, Solas frowned.

Something is wrong.

His eyes followed her as she made her way into their tent.

\--

Bull and Sera, showing no signs of going to bed right away, sat at the fire and made lewd jokes. They had decided early on to share a tent, leaving Solas and Isla in their own. It had happened before, as the party typically rotated. It would almost certainly happen again.

Solas climbed into the tent, noting the blanket that had been pulled over most of her face. 

“Lethallan,” he began, wondering, “Is everything alright?”

“It will be,” she said after a pause.

He finished changing and laid down, facing her back. Her hair glowed in the darkness. His fingers itched, almost reaching out to press a hand to her head. Lath’sal’in. He thought of the human child, the affection she had shown him so easily.

His palm found her hair. He held it there for a moment.

“On nhyda,” he said, drawing his hand back to his side.

“On nhyda, Solas.”

After a time, they both fell asleep.

\--

He found her dream easily.

The dream was clouded and dark. In front of him, a young elven woman wrapped an embroidered scarf around the bright hair of a child. It was unmistakably Isla, no older than eleven.

“Da’len,” the woman whispered, her eyes wide, “you must hide. Do not make a sound. Do not move. We are being hunted. Do you understand?”

The young Isla nodded and her mother pointed to a dark bush. The sound of metal and anger -- swords and humans -- grew louder.

The three human men who found the woman were grotesque in Isla’s memory. They knocked the daggers out of her hands, killing her quickly. The hidden elven child stared with wide eyes. The men cheered, ready to celebrate the murder. Whatever they said was not heard.

Isla moved silently forward, hands shaking as she picked up her mother's daggers. 

“Mamae,” she whispered.

The humans had not seen her emerge, did not hear her flanked attack coming. She slit the first one’s throat quickly. Her battle with the other two proved less certain. Solas winced when the sword cut her face, just missing her eye as it sliced through the soft skin of her forehead and cheek. 

She bared her teeth and charged at them. Their deaths were quick after that.

She stood above the bodies, breathing hard as blood dripped down to her neck.

\--

Solas woke. Isla was still asleep, and he could hear the distress of her breathing. She had turned towards him in the night.

“Isla, wake up,” he said, grasping her shoulder, “Isla. Satha, lethallan, wake up.”

He hesitated. Temptation.

Solas reached, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him, “Isla.”

Her eyes opened. Her breathing came heavier, seeing where she was. 

“Solas,” she said, her voice breaking. She was crying.

“You are safe here, Isla,” he said, holding her close, her face pressed to his shoulder, “You are safe.”

**Author's Note:**

> Translations/evlish all courtesy of Fenxshiral!!!
> 
> Lath’sal’in: the act of fondling someone’s hair, especially someone you care about. Lit. “Love the house of the soul.”
> 
> Lethallan - cousin/kin
> 
> On Nhyda: good night
> 
> Satha: Please
> 
> Da’len: little one/child


End file.
